Oh My Goodness
by Happyzen
Summary: AU. Cato and Clove win the Hunger Games, and in order to save their own, and their families lives, they have to pretend to be in love. But President Snow knows they're faking, and suddenly, the stakes are higher than ever...ON HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So this is my first Hunger Games Fanfic, and it's probably full of grammatical errors, but hopefully it's ok. Anyways, on with the story!**

"_Stop, Stop! Panem, may I present to you your Victors, Cato Selkirk and Clove Redpath from District 2!" _

Cato removed his arms from where they were strangling my neck, and in return, I took my knife away from where it was pressed against his heart. We had won the Games, I was going back to District 2, and I wasn't dead. I looked at Cato who had a shocked expression on his face, it was almost comical, but I was sure that my expression mirrored his. I had always assumed that when I won the Games, not if, but when, I won I would feel confident and proud of myself for the achievement. But that's not the case. I want to cry in relief that they're finally over. As the Capitol anthem blared out from the speaker, I wondered how this had ended up happening.

_**The wolf muttations chased us to the Cornucopia. Lover boy didn't make it; he was ripped to shreds by the muttations before reaching the Golden Horn. His screams echoed through the cold night air, chilling me to the bones. Unfortunately Fire Girl made it to the Cornucopia. She was outnumbered by Cato and I, I had one of my two remaining knives aimed at her, and Cato still had his sword, and was ready to decapitate the bitch. However, she probably could've killed us with her arrows, if she had really tried. We stood in a sort of triangle for a while, knowing that if one of us made a move, the others would attack. But in the end, neither of us killed her; she slipped off the structure trying to shoot an arrow at one of us. The muttations tore her to shreds, and we spent all night listening to her screams. In the end, I couldn't take it anymore, I threw a knife at her, and all at once, the muttations disappeared. Then the announcement came: there was to be only one Victor. Cato and I didn't hesitate before attacking each other. But we were too evenly matched…**_

They whisked us off in a hovercraft, I don't remember much of what happened, as they then removed the trackers in our arms and knocked us both unconscious with some kind of drug so that when they got to the hospital, they could fix us up in peace. I had my rib that had been broken by Cato in our final battle fixed and a few other minor injuries were healed. Cato had a few sprains and bruises healed, but nothing was very serious.

Then I was taken back to my prep team. They gushed at how lucky I was to be alive and how the Games had been such a hit. Everybody had loved the whole star crossed lovers of District 12 thing, but thought that Cato and I made a cuter couple.

"What?" I choked

"Everybody simple _loved_ you and Cato darling, and at the end, when you had to fight each other, it was simply heart breaking." gushed Orchid, one of my prep team

"But Cato and I, we're not a couple!" I told them

But my prep team either weren't listening or they didn't care, because they ignored me and continued gossiping. They honestly scared me, and I was Clove Redpath, the girl who wasn't scared of anything.

There was Orchid, who tried to look like the flower she was named after, with white hair, face, lips and outfits, the only splashes of colour were purple and yellow tips in her hair and the green dresses that she wore. There was also Mizar, who despite being a man, wore makeup, and I'm not talking about guyliner, but he was the most normal looking one, with a purple afro and gold eyes. Then, there was Eustacia. She was quite a sight, dyed turquoise skin, eyes with flower patterns in them, gold tattoos that writhed above her eyebrows and scary green eyelashes. I felt bad for them; they actually thought they looked good.

By the time I was ready to see my stylist, Auricula, all the hair had been ripped from my body, my face had been caked in makeup to hide any scratches that remained and fake nails had been glued on to hide the remnants of my broken, chewed off nails. I looked at myself. The prep team had done a good job of hiding my physical wounds, but I was more concerned about the psychological wounds, the ones that all the trauma in the arena had caused. I seemed, different, to the confident girl that had entered the arena. I still looked the same, but my eyes betrayed me. They showed the truth, all the horrors that I'd seen in the arena and the pain that I'd suffered. I hadn't noticed before, but every single Victor must have the same eyes. That was why Haymitch drank, why many were morphling addicts, they wanted to forget. I promised myself that I wasn't going to risk harming myself, just to forget, that I was going to find some method of healing that was healthy.

Auricula came into see me. She looked the same as ever, cold and unfriendly.

"I figured that you could wear this gold dress." she told me

I nod, what else can you do? The whole makeover process is so exhausting that by the time the stylist gets to you that you can't do anything but nod and agree with them. I'm dressed in a long, floor length gold coloured dress and high heels that I can't walk in. The dress is maybe a little too low cut for my taste, but I look nicer than usual, so I'm not complaining. My dark hair is curled, and then straightened, and then finally, it's decided that wavy hair looks the best.

I wobble down to where Cato, Brutus and our other mentor Eta are waiting. I expect that they'll just be talking about interview angles, but I'm met with Brutus looking worried and serious.

"What's going on?" I ask

"Take off those shoes Clove, so that you can actually walk." I do what he tells me and we follow Brutus down a series of hallways to a garden.

"What are we doing here?" asks Cato

"No cameras or listening devices. I have to tell you something, which could very possibly save your lives." Brutus tells us

We stay silent waiting for them to tell us more. I don't really know what's going on; but I had a bad feeling that it was something to do with what the prep team were talking about.

"Panem thinks that you two are a couple." Eta said

"What?" spluttered Cato

"That was my reaction too…" I mutter

"Somehow the Capitolites have come to believe that you two are in love. And if you go to the interview, and tell them the truth, they'll be crushed." Brutus explains

"So? Who gives a fuck about the feelings of those spoilt Capitolites?" Cato exclaims

I agree with him, although I'm slightly offended that he is totally against us being in love. I'm not _that_ ugly, and I'm only a year younger.

"That's not the main problem, I wasn't finished!" huffs Brutus

"The thing is, if you don't keep up the charade, President Snow may kill everybody you care about. He can't touch you two at the moment, you're Victors, but in a decade or two, once everybody's forgotten Clove and Cato, the lovers from District 2, he'll get his revenge. Nobody outwits the Capitol and comes out unscathed." says Eta

"If that's going to happen anyways, then why do we have to pretend to be lovers?" I ask

"If you do, and you're convincing, there's a chance that you might live and your loved ones could be spared. Make everybody believe that you made a pact that if you two were the last ones standing, you would kill each other. Persuade everybody that you're madly in love, that you would rather kill each other than be separated." answers Brutus

Cato and I look at each other, hardly believing what we're hearing. How am I going to convince Panem that I'm in love with this boy? We became friends in the arena, but nothing more. I was never much of an actress, but I'm going to have to pull off this performance, it will decide whether I live or die.

After our rather morbid conversation, we walked back to outside where Caesar Flickerman's talk show was held. I put my shoes on again, steadying myself on Cato. We had decided that we were going to try as hard as possible to act in love, which would be hard as we had no feelings for each other. Thank Panem he was attractive, so kissing him might not be too repulsive. We stood nervously, waiting for our cue to enter. The theme song started and we heard applause, meaning that Caesar Flickerman had entered.

I heard our prep team being introduced, they must love the feeling of being on live television, especially Orchid, I'd often heard her go on about '_What a hottie Caesar is, and at his age as well!'_ Our prep team are all newbies to the Hunger Games, so I assume that this is their first time on live television.Then our escort, Aphrodite was introduced, she's been on the show before, so the audience will probably recognize her. My stylist Auricula, and Cato's stylist, Velorum, are introduced, but like Aphrodite, they have been through this before. Our mentors go on, and the audience goes wild for these old Victors. After he cracked a few jokes, we heard him introduce us.

We walked onstage, I wobbled in my shoes, and I had to grab on to Cato to avoid falling flat on my face. The audience seemed to like that, how did they even end up thinking that we loved each other though?

"Congratulations, how does it feel to win?" he asks us

"I can't believe that I'm alive, and that Cato won alongside me. Honestly Caesar, I couldn't have asked for more, when they announced that two people could win, I was overjoyed. It meant that I got to live in the nicest place in District 2, and my lover gets to live with me as well!" I answer

These words feel strange coming out of my mouth, yet the audience doesn't seem to notice. They lap it up, loving the words that are coming out of my mouth.

Caesar then turns to Cato.

"Now, before we begin watching your Games, I believe that there is a question everybody wants the answer to." he says

Cato smiles good-naturedly. "What question?"

"When did you two fall in love?" asks Caesar

"I don't know. I guess that Clove always stood out from everybody else. She's just so- I'm sorry I'm not good with words, I-I can't describe it, or how it happened, but somehow, I fell in love with the amazing beautiful, Clove Redpath."

The audience goes wild at his response, but I can see they want more, and that this won't be enough to convince the President that I love Cato. So I turn to face Cato, and despite the heels, I'm still a little shorter than him, so I loop my arms around his neck and hope that he knows what I'm doing. I see a flash of recognition in his eyes, and he leans down, and our lips meet.

This really makes the audience go insane, they cheer and clap and scream a combination of our names, Clato. We break apart after a minute or two, and when we go to sit down, I ignore the separate chair set for me, and I sit on Cato's lap.

Caesar laughs, joking that we can't keep our hands of each other. We smile and I giggle along politely, before Cato leans down and we kiss again.

We are interrupted by Caesar, who announces that it's time to watch a replay of the Games. I decide to watch very carefully, to see what could possibly make the audience think that we were in love. At the beginning, I don't see anything, and I'm starting to believe that the people from the Capitol just made up our relationship to add something more to the Games.

But then I see it, at the Feast, after Cato killed Thresh, I was lying on the ground, unconscious after Thresh hit me. Cato comes up to me, and holds me, begging me not to die. But no cannon fires and after a while, I wake up, my eyelashes fluttering, and I smile at him. The whole scene looks like something from a goddamn fairy tale, no wonder everybody thinks we're in love, if the people on the screen weren't me and Cato, I would've thought that they were in love.

I turn to Cato and kiss him again, just so the Capitol bubbleheads think that this is a special moment for us. Thank God Cato actually gets what I try to do, otherwise we'd look like awkward, bumbling idiots, and our families would be killed. Even though I truly detest my father, and my siblings have all grown up and gotten married and abandoned me, I don't want them to die.

When the replay is over we kiss again before walking offstage. My prep team scrub the makeup off my face and help me out of my dress, I then change as quickly as possible into my pyjamas and go straight to bed. I don't get much sleep that night. I toss and turn unable to sleep. And when I do finally fall asleep, I get nightmares that cause me to wake up again, drenched in sweat and shivering out of fright. After that, realize that I'm not going to get any sleep, and lie in my bed, hoping that time will pass quickly so that I can get the final interview and the crowning over and done with, and I can just leave the Capitol.

I'm the first at the breakfast table today, followed closely by Cato.

"Nightmares?" I ask him, seeing the bags under his eyes

"Yeah. I can't wait for this whole thing to end, I want to go back home." he replies

"That's what I was thinking." I tell him

We spend the rest of breakfast eating in silence; I'm not very hungry so I only eat a little before surrendering myself to the whims of my prep team. They change the fake nails and they slather makeup over my face. For the final interview, I'm dressed in a green dress with too high heels.

"Do I have to wear these shoes?" I ask Auricula

"Yes." she replies

"But I can't walk in them!" I repost

"Then you have an excuse to hold Cato's hand." she answers coldly

At first, I think that she's just being her usual, bitchy self. But then I see the knowing gleam in her eyes: she knows about me and Cato. I wonder if Brutus or Era told her, or if she just guessed herself, but either way she knows, and she's helping me pull off this charade.

I wobble to where we're supposed to meet, the same place where we met yesterday, just outside the entrance to Caesar's show.

"Good luck." says Brutus

I smile at my mentor before walking into the bright lights of the studio. I hold onto to Cato's hand, to stop myself from crashing to the ground and to make everybody think that we're in love.

We answer a series of questions about the Hunger Games and our 'love'. I can't answer honestly about the Games though, I only just got out of the arena a few days ago, I haven't processed it yet, and how am I supposed to answer questions about a week filled with near death experiences?

"How did you feel when the announcement came that after all, only one of you could survive?" asks Caesar

"Devastated. But Clove and I had decided, earlier on, before the Games had started, that if we were in the final two, that we would fight it out honestly. But I know that in the end, I wouldn't have been able to bring myself to kill her. I love her too much." replies Cato. I then turn and kiss him again, so that the audience is satisfied

"And when you were both declared Victors, we could all see the shocked looks on your faces, but how did you feel about being able to win the Games, alongside with Cato?" questions Caesar

"I was overjoyed, I was honestly so surprised, that we could both live, that we could spend the rest of our lives together." I answer

The audience seems to love this stupid, romantic mush that's just pouring out of my mouth.

The rest of the interview goes by fairly quickly, and after another hour of kissing Cato and answering questions, we leave to go get crowned by President Snow. Usually, they crown us after we watch the replay of the Games, but since there are two Victors this time, they want to do some kind of fancy and unnecessary ceremony.

They take us to some place, with another audience, and we sit in separate thrones, listening to the national anthem blare out of the speakers. President Snow enters, followed by a little girl holding a pillow with two crowns. He places one on Cato's head, then turns to do the same to me. When he places the crown on my head, he looks me in the eyes, and I feel very, very afraid. He looks furious and practically murderous and that's when I know, that President Snow isn't fooled, he realizes that me and Cato don't love each other, that this was all an act and that somebody is going to pay for it.


	2. Chapter 2

**AU: Thank you to everybody who reviewed or added my story to Story Alert/Favourite. I also like constructive criticism, as my grammar is truly awful; I'm looking to get a beta. Anyways, here goes Chapter 2…**

**Chapter 2:**

Once we boarded the train, I pulled Cato on to the balcony part of it that's outside, where the listening devices planted around it can't hear us.

"Why did you drag me out here Clove?" he asks a bit too loudly

"Shut up you idiot!" I say harshly

I can see he's still angry at being taken out here in the cold, but I don't care, I need to know if he realizes how much danger we're in.

"So why aren't we inside, in the warm?" he asks

"Did you see the look President Snow gave us?" I ask him

"The look…?"

"Didn't you see how he glared at us? Cato, he knows that we're faking." I tell him

"So he glared at us, and you think that he knows that we're not in love? You think that he's going to kill our families and us?" Cato sounds incredulous

"Unlike you, I'm not a complete dumbass; I can tell that he's out to get us." I reply

"You can't tell that much about a person from a glare they give you." he says

"Yes you can, and besides, you didn't see The Look, so you wouldn't know." I say

"But-"

"Shut up Cato, you know I'm right."

Cato obviously doesn't believe me, but we've have arguments before and he knows that I almost always win, so he gives up.

"So, even if he is going to kill us, what can we do about it?" he questions

"We've got to try and change his mind." This was the only solution that I had thought of at short notice, it wasn't perfect and I was hoping that Cato would have another idea.

"Easier said than done…" he mutters

"Have you got any other ideas?" I question, putting my hands on my hips

"No, but we'll think of something." he says

I can't sleep during our train journey back to District 2, I'm too terrified, thinking of the revenge that President Snow is going to exact upon us. I spend the two day long journey eating, taking very long showers and talking to Cato, trying to pass the time till we get back.

When I get off the train, I feel relieved, relieved that I'm back home in District 2. It's a typical day here, cloudy with the sun shining somewhere in the distance. The wind ruffles my dress and I have to take off my shoes so that I don't have to hold on to Cato to walk, to hold it down. The crowd is cheering at our return, but in the crowd, only about three people and my family are there for me, and the one person who I really wanted to see isn't here. It's the opposite for Cato, his hundreds of friends are all here, but I don't see his father. I don't think they have the best relationship though if the bruises Cato had when he came to school were gifts from his father. The rest of the population of District 2 is here because it's always exciting to come and greet the new Victor, and they sort of have to be there.

I walk through the crowd of people, greeting the people I remember and saying hello to my two friends, Lia and Tristina, promising to meet up with them later. I look for Saff, but I can't see him, my fake smile for the horde of people fades a little.

"Clove, Clove over here!" I hear someone yell

I turn towards the voice and smile as I see Griffin. He's my nephew, and only six years old, he's my brother, Wade's son, and he's my favourite family member.

"Griffin! I've missed you!" I yell back

He smiles, showing that he's lost a few teeth. He's really adorable, I don't usually think of children as adorable, I normally just label them disgusting, but Griffin's the only exception. It helps that he wants me to teach him how to throw a knife, that's a very endearing quality.

We hug and for the first time since I hung out with Saff before volunteering for the Hunger Games, I smile for real. I listen to his babble as we walk to my new house in Victor's Village; my brother's going to pick him up later. We spend the evening attempting to bake cookies and laughing, both are activities which I don't do on a regular basis. Sometimes it's a bit irritating that he's so little and that he doesn't understand as much as I do, but whenever I feel that way, I generally get over it pretty quickly, that's how adorable Griffin is. We're eating cookies out of a packet after our attempts at baking failed when he asks me a question.

"Are you and Cato going to get married?" he asks me innocently

I smile at him and shake my head, if he was older, and if the house wasn't bugged (which I'm pretty sure it is) I would answer him honestly and tell him that I'm faking being in love with Cato.

"Why not?" he asks

"Because…"

How am I going to tackle this? How do I explain to a six year old that I'm not getting married to this guy because we've only started 'dating'?

"Because?" he looks up at me, his big brown eyes waiting for an answer

"Because we're too young, I'm only sixteen and he's only seventeen." I reply

"But Mama and Papa got married when Mama was sixteen." he counters my argument

This is a delicate subject, my brother married Theta, because she got pregnant when she was only fifteen. They got married on her sixteenth birthday; it was quite a weird experience for me, seeing as my brother was sixteen, two year older than me at the time.

"Well Griffin, not everybody gets married when they're sixteen." I answer, hoping that I've satisfied his curiosity.

"Okay, can you teach me to throw knives now?" he asks

I sigh with relief that this isn't another awkward question.

"Sure."

The next day, after sleeping comfortably on my big bed, I decide to practice throwing knives. I go to the basement of my house, where they've taken my collection of knives and given me a few new ones, and set up a few targets around the room. I take a look at my knives and pick out my favourite one, a long knife with a slightly curved silver blade, and a handle made of black leather that my hand curls around comfortably. I close my eyes, and fling it at the nearest target.

I lack my usual precision, and it hits just above the forehead on the target dummy. I choose another knife, one I haven't used before, and aim it at the head. However, I'm not used to how light the knife is and I miss the spot that I was aiming for on the forehead.

I scream with frustration, and pick up another knife and throw it at the dummy, but again I miss. Enraged at missing targets, I pick up the knives and start hurling them at the targets. I throw with force, taking out my anger at everything on these target dummies. I hit them, wishing they were the President, the Gamemakers, Caesar Flickerman, and everybody else who helped create the Hunger Games, the people that created the situation that I'm in now. Throwing knives doesn't satisfy my bloodlust, so I go and rip the dummies apart. I survey the damage in front of me; nothing remains of the target dummies but fluff from the stuffing inside of them. My anger is still boiling inside of me, and I want to take my favourite knife and cut open a vein in somebody else's arm, and listen to them scream out in pain. I smile at the thought, and I wish that there was someone around that I could cut.

I snap out of those bloodthirsty thoughts, almost ashamed of them. I'm a Career. I always was one, but I always thought that I was slightly better than that. I'm becoming what the Capitol expects of me: a complete monster. I don't think I'm a monster, I throw knives to have something to do, for fun, and before the Hunger Games, I hadn't killed anyone. But the Games changed me, I killed, not to survive, I was a Career after all, but for fun. I don't want to be a monster, but I think that I might be turning into one, especially if my yearning to make somebody bleed means anything. I run upstairs to the bathroom, slamming the door to the basement behind me. I don't want to be in that room anymore, I need to get away from there. I go up the stairs two at a time till I get to the bathroom where I collapse.

I decide to take a long shower to think, I'm not some weak little girl who cries because they wanted to cut a person up, I'm Clove Redpath, the girl who escaped the Hunger Games and outwitted the Capitol. During the shower I realize something, if President Snow knows that I'm not in love with Cato and vice versa, then we can stop pretending.

I come out of the shower smiling, and in m good mood, I decide to go into town to try and find Saff who wasn't there yesterday. He's probably my best friend, we've known each other since we were both thirteen and in need of friends. At the time, we were both loners, so we started hanging out. Eventually, we made other friends, but we're still close. After wandering around town aimlessly, I find him talking to his friends near the park where everybody goes to hang out.

"Hey Saff." I call out

He turns and smiles when he sees me. He's changed a bit since I left District 2, he's grown taller, and the ever elusive summer sun has given him freckles, but other that, he still looks like the auburn haired idiot who also happens to be my best friend.

"Hey Clove, come join us." he waves me over to where he and his friends are standing

I walk towards them, I don't really want to be around any other people, but for the sake of appearing normal, I go join them, the only thing that I can't help is the scowl that's appeared on my face. I'm surprised when Saff throws his arms around me and hugs me.

"I missed you." he murmurs

"Same here." I reply

For some reason, my heart skips a beat when he hugged me. What's going on? Do I like Saff? I can't like Saff, he's just my friend.

One of his friends clears their throat, and I realize that we've been hugging for longer than is strictly necessary. We break away from the hug, but I forget to be worried about people realizing that I don't like Cato when I realize something else, Saff's hot. Not as hot as Cato, but still pretty good looking. How did I not notice this before? Was I completely obtuse or blind? Or maybe I was too busy crushing on somebody else to notice.

"I though you and Cato had a thing…" says the friend who cleared their throat, Majoris.

"Looks like Cato's got some competition." adds another one of his friends, Struve

I roll my eyes, "There's no competition."

From the corner of my eye, I see that for a split second, Saff looks slightly disappointed.

"Lay off Clove, she's just won the Games." says Saff

"My knight in shining armor" I say jokingly, but nobody laughs, I guess they're surprised that I tried to joke

"Clove, can I speak to you alone quickly?" Saff asks me

"Yeah, sure." I reply as we walk away from his friends

He doesn't say anything for a while and I wonder what he's called me out here.

"Listen Clove, there's no easy way to say this, but-your father's dead." he says solemnly

I don't know whether to be relieved or upset. I'm not upset that he died, but I wish that someone had told me before now, and that he actually had any money left. Not that I really needed money seeing as I had won the Hunger Games and all, but more money can't hurt right? When my dad wasn't in my new house in Victor's Village drinking away, I simply assumed that he was passed out drunk somewhere or high with his druggie friends. My father was eighteen when he married my mother, who was seventeen. They had four kids together, before she left him for a richer man. But even before she left us, he had a habit of drinking and smoking funny things, but after my mother left, it only got worse.

"He overdosed on drugs, and they found high levels of alcohol in his blood." Saff adds

"Took him long enough to die." I say

If Saff's shocked by my answer, he doesn't show it. But he knows how bad my father was, so it can't come as any surprise to him that I'm not bursting out in tears.

Anyways, even if the news had upset me, I'm Clove Redpath, I don't cry.

I spend the next two weeks hanging out with either Saff or my other friends Lia and Tristina. Lia wanted to know if Cato was a good kisser, and Tristina told me that I was lucky to have such a hot guy as my boyfriend. I'm not sure why I tolerate these two, but I guess it's better to hang out with people then be seen as some sad-ass loser. Technically, since I'm a Victor now, I won't be considered a loser, but I still meet up with them, I'm not quite sure why, maybe it's just habit.

I haven't seen Cato; he sticks to his house most of the time. I think it's because after what he's seen in the Hunger Games, he can't just walk back into his old life. It's kind of funny actually, I thought that he was totally fine with brutally murdering other children. He should just do what I do, act like everything's fine in front of everybody, that you're the same person you always were. I've even convinced myself that I'm fine, but deep down I know that I'm scarred for life, that the sound of Fire Girl and Lover Boy's screaming as they got torn apart by the muttations are going to haunt my dreams forever.

I come home at the end of the second week, but I know something's off when I see Peacekeepers stationed outside my house.

When I get to the front door, one of them opens it for me, "The President's waiting for you in the study Miss Redpath."

My blood runs cold and I pale as I think about all the possible situations that would cause the President to come to my house. _Snap out of it, he's just an old man_, I try to tell myself. But it doesn't work; I'm still terrified as I slowly ascend the stairs. I open the study timidly, and see that Cato's in there as well.

"Ah Miss Redpath, how nice of you to join us." he says

The man disgusts me. His lips are too big, his hair is unnaturally white, the rose he wears smells bad, but the smell of blood surrounding him is worse.

I sit down, and I glance at Cato who looks just as terrified as I do.

"Down to business, first of all, we're going to promise not to lie to each other. I have no need to lie to you two, and this will all be over and done with faster if you don't lie to me." he says

We sit there in silence until President Snow speaks again, "I'll start, I promise that I won't lie, now just agree that you'll do the same so we can get started."

"I promise that I won't lie." Cato says, and feeling like an idiot, I repeat what he says.

President Snow smile and clasps his hands together.

"It's nice to see such cooperation. I know that you two aren't in love." he says

"I-I k-know." I stutter

"Yes, I believe that I made that very clear to you at your crowning ceremony. Because of you two, people are starting to believe that they can defy the Capitol. That's not good, if there's rebellion, this delicate, but effective order crashes, pandemonium ensures and people die. That's not good now is it?" he states condescendingly, as if he's talking to children the same age as Griffin

We shake our heads dumbly, unable to do anything else.

"I never expected rebellion to come from District 2, when the new rule as introduced, I expected that Everdeen girl to be the one to spark a revolution." he muses

"But sir, we didn't mean to start a revolution." says Cato

He looks at us, "I know that you didn't and there is a simple remedy to this situation. Convince Panem that you two are in love. The Victory tour is going to start earlier than usual, in a few weeks' time, so that you two can show everybody how much you care about each other. And if people still see you as a sign of rebellion and the people who purposely outwitted the Capitol, then I'll have to take drastic action."

I'm worried about what he means by drastic action, but I'm hoping that I won't have to find out.

"Sounds good to me." I say, Cato agrees

"Good, I'm so glad that you understood how important this is. There's just one last thing that I'd like to bring up."

"Which is?" Cato asks, as eager as I am for this man to leave

"This concerns you Miss Redpath, you and your _friend_ Mr. Laporis."

"Who?" I ask, unsure of any of my friends' last names

"You know him as Saff." he tells me

What little colour my face regained fades away just as quickly. He knows, somehow President Snow knows that I like Saff, which I don't, but I might, but either way- I just don't want him to die.

He chuckles at my facial expression, "I see you know what I mean, stay away from him, people are never going to believe that you're in love with this young man", he gestures towards Cato, "if you continue to visit Mr. Laporis every day. If you completely disregard my warnings, then Mr. Laporis will pay the price. This was a pleasant visit, and I believe that you understood what is at stake, hopefully we won't see each other any time soon, goodbye."

He puts his coat on, and walks out of the study like nothing happened, like he hasn't just threatened us and told us that we need to behave or he'll take _drastic action_ which probably involves killing people.

We sit there for what feels like an hour before Cato speaks.

"This sucks."

"No shit, I never thought this kind of thing would happen when I won the Hunger Games." I reply

"Me neither, I thought that I'd be living the good life. Rich enough to have servants, my family would finally be respected after my uncle died in his Games, and my sister wouldn't have to volunteer. I'd be hanging out with my friends every day, and I'd have hot chicks chasing after me. Instead, I'm stuck here with you, and we have to go out or everybody that we actually care about will die." he runs a hand through his blonde hair, and leans backwards on his chair, and closes his eyes

I've never heard Cato sound this depressed, he's given up, and he's realized that we're stuck together.

The next day, I receive a letter from President Snow.

_Dear Miss Redpath,_

_It slipped my mind to mention this yesterday, but please make an effort to be seen in public with Mr. Selkirk. The Victory Tour has now officially been scheduled to start in three weeks, and the announcement shall be broadcasted tomorrow night . Your prep team and your stylist shall arrive a little before you depart on your tour, so that by then, you are camera ready . And try not to destroy the basement again._

_Good Luck,_

_President Snow_

I throw the letter away after reading it, and go downstairs to the basement to throw knives. It was rebuilt after my little incident two weeks ago. I throw knives, but my heart isn't into it. This time I have perfect aim, but I don't take any joy in my achievement, I'm too worried about the Victory Tour. After eating breakfast, I go over to Cato's house, and he doesn't looks surprised to see me.

"Did he send you a letter too?" he asks

"Yeah, so I figured we could walk around town and go to the park or whatever."

"Sounds good." he closes the door behind him as he takes my hand and we walk towards town.

People gawk as we walk to the bakers and buy cheese buns, this is the first time we've been out together as a couple. We kiss a couple of times, it's all meaningless and I can't help but wish that I was kissing someone else.

We stroll to the park and sit down under a tree and act like a sickeningly cute couple, the kind that feed each other food and kiss for no reason whatsoever. I lie down, my head on Cato's lap as we wait for time to pass so as many people as possible can see how much we love each other.

We get up to leave, and we kiss again, but as I pull away, I see Saff behind Cato, looking like I've thrown one of my knives at his heart.

**Just another quick AU:**

**Can somebody come up with a better title? I've been looking into it, but I haven't found one yet, so ideas would be much appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3 Excerpt

**AU: Sorry that I haven't written in ages! This is a teaser for chapter 3, it's only 361 words, but I'll finish the rest of it and post it soon.**

**I have a VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION that will affect what happens in this story. Since I'm sort of making this up as I go along, who do you want Clove to end up with, Cato or Saff?**

**Please put it in a review or PM me, whichever boy gets the most votes will end up with Clove.**

**And now the excerpt from Chapter 3:**

I hadn't spoken to Saff since he had seen Cato and I kissing in the park. I wanted to go and tell him that it was all an act and that I liked _him_ more than I liked Cato. But I couldn't for two reasons:

He was avoiding me.

If I told him the truth, President Snow would be after him as well.

So I wasted my days practising my knife throwing, kissing Cato in public and watching those idiotic Capitol TV shows like DISTRICT 4 where they had a bunch of Capitolites living in a house in District 4. All the shows were as shitty as that one, and some were even worse. I now understood why the Hunger Games were so popular, everything else was so awful.

I had two weeks to go till my Victory Tour when I heard a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" I ask. Nobody ever visits me, not even Cato, I'm always the one to organize our trips into town.

"It's me, Auricula, and your prep team," replies the voice who I now recognize as Auricula, my stylist.

"Why are you here?" They weren't supposed to be here yet, I still have two weeks.

"Let me in, it's a long story," she answers.

Reluctantly, I open the door to reveal the colourful faces of my stylist and prep team. I've forgotten the names of my prep team, they were all completely stupid airheads and I never liked them much, they were too…fake.

"So what are you doing here?"

Auricula sighs, her golden (not blonde-actual gold) curls bobbing as she does.

"Plutarch Heavensbee, the new Head Gamemaker, came up with an idea. For the next two weeks until the Tour, there's going to be a reality show about you and Cato. There will be a camera crew following you practically 24/7 and they want a lot of Clato," she tells me.

"Clato?" I blurt. Who's Clato?

"It's Cato and Clove combined: your couple name. They expect romance and a lot of it, you'll have to spend all your time with Cato, and you might even have to move in with him,"


End file.
